Book Review: “I Take You” by Eliza Kennedy.

Recommended beverage while reading: Straight vodka. It’s the only way to get through this one.

Overall Rating: 1.5 stars out of 5.

Meet Lily Wilder: New Yorker, lawyer extraordinaire, blushing bride. And totally incapable of being faithful to one man.

Lily’s fiancé Will is a brilliant, handsome archaeologist. Lily is sassy, impulsive, fond of a good drink (or five) and has no business getting married. Lily likes Will, but does she love him? Will loves Lily, but does he know her? As the wedding approaches, Lily’s nights—and mornings, and afternoons—of booze, laughter and questionable decisions become a growing reminder that the happiest day of her life might turn out to be her worst mistake yet.

Unapologetically sexy with the ribald humor of Bridesmaids, this joyously provocative debut introduces a self-assured protagonist you won’t soon forget. (Goodreads)

Alright, fellow bloggers. Brace yourselves for this one. I received “I Take You” by Eliza Kennedy as my first book as a new member for Blogging for Books. While I may have hated this book, I am definitely still grateful that they sent it to me for free. So, truly, thank you.

Now. We begin.

I was hoping for a light chick lit read with this one, and in some ways it was. But seriously, Kennedy couldn’t have written a more deplorable character. I can’t even say why, really. She drinks, does drugs, cheats constantly, is annoying as all hell. All of this I’ve read in other characters and didn’t find them nearly as repulsive. So why was Lily so terrible? Eventually I came to the conclusion that maybe it was because she was terrible without having a greater purpose.

You know how books generally serve some greater purpose? Or at least make some sort of point by not having a greater purpose? Yeah, not with this one. Eventually, it seems to try to make the point for sexual empowerment for women. Hey, I’m all for it. But it felt completely fake and like it was being used just to try to make this an actual book. I learned nothing from this book (other than a few new drinks I might want to try the next time I go out), and that’s irritating.

I literally threw this book across the room when I finished. Never done that before. So I guess I can be grateful that I got at least a new experience out of this read?

What’s even more irritating? That Lily seemed to come to these grand realizations about herself and by the end finally decided that maybe she wanted to change, and nothing did. Nothing mattered. It was like saying, “Hey I just made you read over 300 pages just so that nothing can happen.”

I just can’t with this book. I seriously can’t even gather my thoughts enough to write a decent scathing review. Honestly, I don’t even really want it to be scathing because I know it takes guts for an author to write a book and put it out there. It does – and I applaud Kennedy for that. But I hated Lily and all the other characters so much that I can hardly write a mild-mannered review let alone a nice one. So angry and semi-scathing it is.

I would not recommend this to anyone. I’m sorry.

Book Review: “The Glass Arrow”, by Kristen Simmons

Recommended beverage while reading: Just some plain black iced tea — no sweetener.

Rating: 4.75 out of 5 stars.

The Handmaid’s Tale meets Blood Red Road in Glass Arrow, the story of Aya, who lives with a small group of women on the run from the men who hunt them, men who want to auction off breeding rights to the highest bidder.

In a world where females are scarce and are hunted, then bought and sold at market for their breeding rights, 15-year old Aya has learned how to hide. With a ragtag bunch of other women and girls, she has successfully avoided capture and eked out a nomadic but free existence in the mountains. But when Aya’s luck runs out and she’s caught by a group of businessmen on a hunting expedition, fighting to survive takes on a whole new meaning. (Goodreads)

So a while back, in one of my Watch Out! Wednesdays, I mentioned this as a book I was looking forward to reading. I’ve had my issues with dystopian after basically reading nothing else for months a couple years ago, but I felt it was time to take a tentative step toward getting back into the genre.

Honestly, this book could very easily have been cliche and terrible. Don’t get me wrong, it was cliche at points. But all the right points. Okay, so there’s a group of people who are subjugated by another group — been there, read that. It only gets old when it’s done poorly, though. This felt a little more complex than your stereotypical dystopian YA. There were multiple groups, and little was discussed about any of them, really. And, since this was a stand-alone, I kind of liked that. Aya’s purpose wasn’t to change the world. Her purpose was to change her fate, which is difficult but not improbable. I liked the realistic nature of her goals. We didn’t get a whole lot of detail into the world because, let’s face it, that wasn’t exactly important to Aya and her family. Sometimes, books can’t be too heavy on the world-building, otherwise they get bogged down and dull.

This one may have been less detailed as far as the world goes, but it was heavily character-driven, and because Aya was a strong lead, that wasn’t a problem. I didn’t find her annoying, and that’s remarkable. She never gave up hope, but was at the same time a realist. She had her core beliefs and never sacrificed them, but she also knew that sometimes the world is so far gone that you can only hope to influence it to a certain extent.

I only had one problem with the book, and it’s one I have with a lot of books, actually. In novels that strive to demonstrate the strength and value of women, it’s often only a single woman who is illustrating these tenets. I wish I could read a (YA, especially) book where it isn’t just one woman but a large group, if not the entire gender, who decide that the world needs to change. I feel like if an author wants to empower women, they should write powerful female characters, not just a single lead. Does that make sense?

But overall, I’m super happy with this book! Could hardly put it down and was bleary-eyed from the reading by the end. Always a good sign!

Review: “Isla and the Happily Ever After”, Stephanie Perkins

Recommended beverage while reading: very strong, very hot, black coffee.

PopSugar challenge category: “A book you can read in a day”

Rating: about 3.5 out of 5 stars.

Hopeless romantic Isla has had a crush on introspective cartoonist Josh since their first year at the School of America in Paris. And after a chance encounter in Manhattan over the summer, romance might be closer than Isla imagined. But as they begin their senior year back in France, Isla and Josh are forced to confront the challenges every young couple must face, including family drama, uncertainty about their college futures, and the very real possibility of being apart. (Goodreads)

Alrighty, so Isla and the Happily Ever After is the final installment of the Anna and the French Kiss series, just in case anyone isn’t aware. But they’re only a series in that they have some overlapping characters and that they follow the same basic story outline. They focus on different characters, while still letting us check in on the previous books’ story-lines. Which I love. I dunno about you all, but there’s just something about finding out what’s going on in the background of a story, or seeing the same story from another person’s perspective that I find immensely enjoyable.

Maybe it’s because we get to check in on both Anna and Etienne and Lola and Cricket that this is my favorite of the series. Or maybe that’s part of the reason, anyway. I think the main reason that I liked this one best was that I related to Isla more than I did to either Anna or Lola. I mean, yes, I liked them both, but I know what Isla deals with when she berates herself. Sometimes it’s just easier to believe in other people’s abilities than it is to believe in your own.

That being said, I did have my issues with it. But I think it’s more that I have my issues with YA contemporary romances in general. In my Goodreads review I said “The fluff level is just gnawingly saccharine. It was like inhaling cotton candy.” And, like candy, it was addicting. Don’t get me wrong — it was enjoyable. But at the same time, perhaps marthoning it wasn’t the best idea. For some reason, doing that just makes all the problems that much more irritating.

**Possible spoilery-ness ahead**

The problems Isla and Josh faced just seemed so inconsequential, you know? I get that that’s part of the deal — their love is so powerful that any problems should seem bearable. And I get that teenagers are dumb and make stupid, impulsive, masochistic decisions. Even knowing all of that, I still didn’t really feel like that the “obstacle” our main characters had to face really made that much sense, and I didn’t really see that it was as earth shattering as it was supposed to be. Maybe I’m just getting too old and pessimistic (or as I like to say, realistic) for YA.

**End of “spoilers”**

Anyway, the series is now finished, and I don’t feel all that torn up about it. I hear that Stephanie Perkins’ next novel is going to be a horror/slasher, and you know what? I am pretty damn excited about it, because despite my problems with these books, I recognize that Perkins has a gift for description, and for writing relatable characters. This genre is so far from what I’m used to seeing from her that I can’t help but be eager to see what it’s like.

I’d recommend this series to fans of John Green and Rainbow Rowell. And possibly Gayle Forman (even though I have given up on ever liking one of her books).

Review: “Stolen”, by Lucy Christopher

Recommended beverage while reading: Just grab some water. Trust me.

PopSugar challenge category: “A book set in a different country.”

Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars.

It happened like this. I was stolen from an airport. Taken from everything I knew, everything I was used to. Taken to sand and heat, dirt and danger. And he expected me to love him.

This is my story.

A letter from nowhere.

Sixteen year old Gemma is kidnapped from Bangkok airport and taken to the Australian Outback. This wild and desolate landscape becomes almost a character in the book, so vividly is it described. Ty, her captor, is no stereotype. He is young, fit and completely gorgeous. This new life in the wilderness has been years in the planning. He loves only her, wants only her. Under the hot glare of the Australian sun, cut off from the world outside, can the force of his love make Gemma love him back?

The story takes the form of a letter, written by Gemma to Ty, reflecting on those strange and disturbing months in the outback. Months when the lines between love and obsession, and love and dependency, blur until they don’t exist – almost. (Goodreads)

So often I read books that have been hyped by what seems like everyone, and I’m left unimpressed. This, however, was not one of those books. I read it in one day and hardly put it down, except when necessary.

It’s told in first-person, past-tense, as a letter from Gemma to her captor. I didn’t think I would enjoy this style, but let’s be real, when have I ever been right on that front? Seems like never. It helped me feel like I understood Gemma and her confusion, because we were getting everything from her perspective, and all her secret thoughts and actions. So even though I’ve never been in a situation remotely similar to Gemma’s, I still felt like I totally related to her. That’s when you know an author is really good at his/her job.

And let’s just talk about Christopher’s writing for a minute. I don’t know all the technical terms and what not, but I can only describe her writing in Stolen as “lyrical”. Sometimes I felt like I was reading poetry. And other times I read a passage and then had to pause, because, re-reading it, I realized that it was a pretty weird way of describing something, but it was also perfect. Unfortunately, I didn’t bother to mark these passages because I couldn’t be bothered to put the book down for three seconds. Sorry, y’all, guess you’ll have to read it yourself to find these magical examples of writing!

By the end of this, I was just as confused about my feelings toward Ty as our main character. Was what we (because by the end of the book, it is we not her) were feeling completely Stockholm Syndrome? Ty was a monster for what he did to Gemma, but was he truly an awful person? Was he deranged? Or was everything he said a complete lie, geared toward making Gemma his?

**Possibly a bit spoiler-y?**

Toward the middle of this, I was actually rooting for Gemma to stay with Ty. I mean, sure, he kidnapped her and spirited her away to the middle of fricking nowhere. But he also seemed to genuinely care for Gemma. I think at that point, Gemma was secretly rooting for them, too. By the end of it, though, Gemma and her audience understand the choice she ultimately made. I won’t say more. But the fact that her audience goes through the same emotional turmoil and confusion that she experiences simply goes to show that Christopher is extremely talented.

**No more spoiler-y-ness**

But I will warn you that if you’re in the mood for fluff, do not read this. It was amazing, but by the end of it, I was so emotionally drained that I sat there in a somewhat stunned silence. I don’t remember ever feeling so tired after reading a book, but sometimes that’s just what we need.

I’d honestly recommend this to anyone, but especially to people who enjoyed Room by Emma Donoghue or for people who like books that are very morally gray.

Thanks, as always, for reading! Tell me what you thought of it, if you want! I’d love to hear everyone’s thoughts. 🙂